Ground Zero
by LaCourtesan
Summary: Post Arkham Asylum, discounting Arkham City. Slight Poison Ivy/Harley Quinn.  Giving Harley Quinn a mind of her own. Bad language, no sex this time.. Maybe.


Somehow, we'd all ended up right back where we'd started. Arkham Asylum. Things were different here.. we'd all gotten moved down to the bottom floor. The same floor as the destroyed elevator from when I'd cut the cables. It was easily the most disturbing place any of us had ever been before. There was this one, huge white room. It was completely blank except for this one platform right in the middle. Atop the platform was a metallic chair with ankle and wrist restraints, cables ran in and out of the chair. There were these big cone shaped twisted pieces attached to the ceiling, trained on the platform. Sparks of blue electricity would snap off them. This was where they tortured an escaped inmate that no one had ever known about, his name was Zeus. He thought he was the god of thunder, you know from Greek mythology. He was completely nuts of course, but weren't we all? Living in this enviroment could only make things worse, we'd lose whatever sanity we had left. This was the rational, ex-psyciatrist part of my brain speaking of course. It was no secret. This place was made up of disturbing room after disturbing room complete with science labs where the scientists used to perform illegal freak experiments on the inmates. Nice. To top it off, they'd allowed Mister Freeze and Doctor Crane to have one of these labs all to themselves. Now _there's _a _great_ idea. The only reason they got it was because the facility didn't want the genius lunatics around the rest of the population. The smarter the crazy, the more dangerous. No one wanted a repeat of the last time we'd taken over the asylum. It was pretty chill until Batman came and messed shit up. Everyone was dead already, what was the point? We would've minded our own business. Okay, so my boyfriend wouldn't have but did that mean we should all get punished? Some people. Anyway, it was basically everyone for themselves down here. They had the "super criminals" here while all the nutjobs were in the old cellblocks. I was pretty normal in term of powers. I could free run, scale buildings, escape, plan and had good ties with all the super humans but – Oh. Right. It wasn't fair, I was just a sitting duck while everyone flew around and blew shit up. I didn't even have my best friend with me. Poison Ivy was supposed to be dead but it was rumored that she was alive, held prisoner in the sewers. No moisture, no sunlight. The worst place possible for her. She'd die there anyway. She had the same needs as her plants. I was anxious thinking about her. I needed to stop that. Stress is bad for the skin. It was sort of impossible to dodge stress when you're waiting for death to come. Expecting it, welcoming it, but still on edge about when and how. I lived day to day, alone and completely vunerable.

Everyone had began planning an uprising. It wouldn't work. The only transfer was food being dropped down. None of the facility ever came to our level of the asylum. They were just too scared. It was fair enough, we'd killed the facility before them. Unfortunately, their caution had left us with no chance at an escape. There was no taking advantage of a guards blindspot or a doctor's weakness. Nope, we were all alone down here. People died everyday and the only way we got around dealing with the smell was good ol' Croc eating them. Just another day in the asylum. Fights were progressing lately, it wasn't the best idea to keep the most powerful and dangerous people in the world on the same level. The sitting duck thought creeped back into my mind. I was gonna make a break for it. Croc and Bane were going at it. It was more dangerous for bystanders being around this fight than being in the middle of a shoot-out and getting hit by crossfire. However, this was the fight of the century. Everyone was gathered around. I broke into a sprint. I was cool with the docs, they'd provide me shelter no problem. I guess my ties to the criminals did make me a threat. I was nutty enough to befriend anyone.

I'd been running in circles – or more realisticly squares – all day. I couldn't find the right lab. There were just so many. One a lot creepier than the next. In my haste I'd skipped it up quite a few times but I finally slowed enough to pick it out of the crowd. I knocked on the heavy door, feet padded across the floor and the door swung open. I had to jump back to get out of it's path. "Oh, sorry kid." Doctor Crane grunted still in that freaky Scarecrow suit. Mister Freeze was – no pun intended – chillin', knocked out on a cot. I stepped into the frosty room. There was barely any air conditioning to this was a huge relief. "So, Harl, what can I help you with?" Ivy used to call me that. I frowned at the memory, "I'm scared out there. I have no powers.. no bad ass suits. I'm vunerable, a mere human. I needed some shelter. This was the only place I felt safe." Although I couldn't see his eyes, I knew Doctor Crane was looking at me with a quizzical expression upon his face. "Well, my child. You're welcome to anything you need." I nodded at Doctor Crane. I followed the strange man for quite a while, exchanging stories and such. Finally, we stumbled upon one of his personal labs. There was a cell, it was huge and filled with an odd green liquid. I could see a faint hint of a lighter green. I walked around the cell to investigate. I gasped at the sight. An obscenely gorgeous nymph was afloat in the liquid. The vines that wrapped and interconnected around around her body seemed to drink it in and then transfer it to her. The nymph's red hair seemed to swim around her head. It appeared to be a fire, the flames licking at the perfect planes of the woman's face. Hey, I knew who that was. I tapped the glass. Doctor Crane all but slapped my hand away. "You'll disturb her, she's at a crucial part in her transformation." I raised an eyebrow, "Transformation?" The doc sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "She's supposed to be dead. When she became human, _they_ took the advantage and attempted to kill her. We've kept her here through her recovery." I stroked the glass with the tip of my finger, frowning deeply. She wouldn't have liked this. Not at all. She must be miserable in there.. "How much longer?" I asked anxiously. I was never patient, my increasing worry wasn't helping. "Shouldn't be too long from now, you don't need to worry Harley. She's fine, we aren't doing anything to her. I promise." I didn't like this, not one bit. I nodded hesitantly and as we started moving away from the tank, my foot got caught by something on floor. I slipped and fell back. "No!" Doctor Crane roared. I was confused until I smacked against the glass of the tank. I whipped around to check the damage. I didn't break it. It just shuddered, before settling and becoming still once again. I sighed in relief and then looked up at the creature. She took in a deep breath and then her eyes snapped open. I jumped back, my ass landing on the floor. Her eyes were wide and child-like as she took in her surroundings. I gasped as they stopped on me. They were gorgeous eyes, like wet moss with specks of gold. I couldn't move. Her emotions were unreadable, she had an oxygen mask covering her nose and mouth. "This isn't good.." Doctor Crane murmured, frowning at the glorious woman. Everything was silent for a while. The doc was deep in thought and I was still mesmerized by the eyes. Finally, Doctor Crane spoke up, startling me. "Harley, we need to get her out. It's sooner than I'd like, but she should be fine." He moved to a control panel, pressing a bunch of buttons that all looked the same to me expertly. His eyebrows drew together in frustration, "Why isn't it working?" The eyes glowed with impatience. There was a crash, glass rained down onto the floor that odd green liquid bursting out behind it. I gasped again at the creature crouched down before me. She ripped off the oxygen mask and lifted her head to the ceiling, taking in a huge gust of air. "That feels so much _better_" she purred, smiling a smile that left me breathless. This woman was definitely not human, so beautiful it was absurd. She licked her burgundy lips and fluttered her elongated, dark lashes as she took in her surroundings. Then her eyes fell on mine again. "Harley?" I gulped and nodded once. "Red." Ivy smiled her perfect, white smile and I shuddered. It was unfair. cleared his throat, "Pamela? How are you feeling?" She looked up from under her lashes, the gold flecks in her eyes burning. "I'm wonderful, Doctor." I closed my eyes and remembered her interview tape. She still had the same smooth, velvet voice. "Good, good." Scarecrow had gotten used to Ivy but now, he was having a little trouble. Red grinned, she noticed it too. "Yes. Thank you so much. It feels _great_ to be home."

Red was trying to convince to go back. She said she didn't want me to be scared in my own home. I knew all she really wanted to do was test out her new strength. "_You_ can go back. I'm staying right here." She rolled her eyes and shot me an impish grin. "Don't be a scaredy cat, Harl." "I'm not scared!" I whined, stamping my foot like a five year old. Ivy let out laugh that sounded more like a bell. It rang in my ears and I admired the sound briefly. "I'll protect you." The nymph crooned. She shook out her strange, pinkish hair and messed with her fingers impatiently. I frowned. I wasn't going to win this one. "I don't wanna die." A dark smirk twisted onto Ivy's perfect face. "I'd like to see someone try." "No! You aren't getting hurt because of me!" Red chuckled again and I marveled at the graceful pitches as they bounced off the walls of the room. "I won't get hurt, you don't have to worry."

To my intense joy and subtle disappointment, Red was right. I wasn't harmed, neither was she. Her immense strength.. you could just sense the raging power within her aura. One look at this beautiful creature and the intimidation really picked up. I was getting used to it. For some reason, Ivy's powers seemed to be lost on me. Not all though. She could make me her lackey, turn my brain into slush. She didn't though, she loved me too much. If the roles were reversed, I would act the same. Pamela was my best friend.. no one meant more to me. Except for my boo, but that's it. I'd die for my fierce protector and confidant. She'd do the same for me.. in an instant. It'd be suicide though, no one had the balls to attack the mysterious, fiery driad.


End file.
